MAKEUP BLOG LONDON - BEAUTY BLOG - MAKEUP TIPS

Take care of your skin in a cold winter

London has not been this cold for the last 10 years! It’s snowing, the white snow just covers everywhere! I have been living in London for years but never saw this much snowing before. The beautiful white snow is beautiful but the cold is not necessary good for your skin as your skin may get too dry, start peeling off, getting red and sore! Make sure that you take care of you skin well to use facial cream and body cream. Having a bath in the a cold winter is such a gift to pamper yourself. Your bath should not be too hot becuase hot water can dry your skin. It will be a good idea to add some drops of baby oil in your bath to give extra moisturiser and smoothness.

Apply cream with a finger tips as little dots over your face but avoiding eyes areas.

Never use day or night cream near your eye areas. You should use separate eye cream for the eye areas. Day cream and night cream have difference consistancies and they are too rich to use on your eye areas.

Use 2 or 3 fingers to massage cream in to your facial skin with circular upward motion. This is a good way to give your face an exercise like making your face going to a gym :-) (Using 2 or 3 fingers is a good way to help to save your cream as it does not go all over your hands)

Keep changing your cream every 3 - 4 month. You can keep using your favourite brands for example in a year you can use the same 3 or 4 of your favourite brands.

This is quite exciting! I am being visited to test new makeup on Thursday the 31st May 2017 by a brand-new brand Powder & Blush that is just about to launch. I am always excited to try new products to see how I can work with them and what they can do! It’s was great to meet with the model and actress Jesmond Murray again after almost 2 years since I first met and worked with her. I met up with Jesmond in Canary Wharf and we headed to Blackheath by car where the front shop of Powder & Blush is.

We arrived at Power & Blush after driving for a short while. It was the first first time I met the brand owner Joanne. My first impression of her… I love her fresh red lipstick on her lips! It’s from her brand as well. I thought I wanted it on me but I had to give myself a little break! James you are here to try the makeup on the model! Let’s get to the business… Joanne started introducing Powder & Blush makeup product ranges. Not long after I was ready to give makeup to Jesmond.

Hmm… I was not in the hurry today as it’s nice and cozy in the shop and took a little bit of time applying makeup slowly! I enjoyed testing them and it’s very challenging to do makeup on mature models as their skin texture is not the same as young models who are in their 20s and who seem to be easily enhanced! I am amazed with the quality of Powder & Blush makeup. They are very competitive with the well known brands in the market.

I took my time applying makeup and testing the products while zipping a tasty coffee that Joanne had offered me earlier. It was very easy to work with Jesmond as she was very calm and stable while I was doing her makeup. So, it’s the time to review the finished look of our model. What do you think of her look! I think she looks stunning!

Big thanks to Joanne for having me testing your products and for your hospitality. I left the shop with some pairs of Powder & Blush false lashes as a gift from her for my hard work :-) Woo Woo! they look good and I can not wait to try them (on myself !)

There were some times in the past, many years ago, when I started a career as a makeup artist…. It was when I was in a rush that I had to carry many tubes and little so many palettes of my cream makeup around when I went to work on-site! Oh my god .. I had a little bit of hard time to find the right one! I learned from that of course! So I bought some empty palettse and put all my favourite cream products at once. This is good for a holiday as well if you are a lady who likes to carry a lot fo cream makeup or lipstick with you :-)

Summer is coming up and it’s time to get tanned! Getting a natural suntan by staying a long time in the hot sunshine on a sunny day maybe not the best option for everyone! (as it can cause skin damage & skin cancer!) Using bronzing powder is a way and a trick to get a suntan look on your face! Some bronzing powders can be used as contouring powder as well to bring out the best of your facial features.

To make the best of your bronzing powder use it as contouring powder; this is a two in one option! You should use a matt brozing powder or the one that contains very little shimmer otherwise it does not make sense for a contouring purpose; as shimmer will give light on your face but not shade and shadow!

Happy New Year 2017 to everyone! I hope you all have a great time. Time is flying away and we are all getting a bit older every year!

Many people may not believe me when I told them about my age. One of my little secrets is taking care of facial skin beside doing exercise regularly and having good diet. These help to save some years! A face lift surgery could be the last thing that I can think about! :-)

I wrote about how to select facial cream on my last blog. This time is about how to apply facial cream to get the most of it!

Apply cream with a finger tips as little dots over your face but avoiding eyes areas.

Never use day or night cream near your eye areas. You should use separate eye cream for the eye areas. Day cream and night cream have difference consistancies and they are too rich to use on your eye areas.

Use 2 or 3 fingers to massage cream in to your facial skin with circular upward motion. This is a good way to give your face an exercise like making your face going to a gym :-) (Using 2 or 3 fingers is a good way to help to save your cream as it does not go all over your hands)

Keep changing your cream every 3 - 4 month. You can keep using your favourite brands for example in a year you can use the same 3 or 4 of your favourite brands.

So, looking 5 - 10 years younger is not a difficult goal! Good luck with your facial skin taking care routine and see you soon on my next blog.

A good day cream and a good night cream can save and keep you staying away from cosmetic surgey including popular cosmetic injections. I don’t want to speak about my age here too much as many of you may be surprised if you knew my age. I use day cream and night cream every day and night. It’s part of my daily facial skin care routines.

There are so many brands in the market with different prices. A good cream does not have to be expensive but it must work on your skin, showing enough good result and the most important thing is...it doesn’t give any allergy to your skin. There are a few simple tips of choosing the right day cream and night cream. This is how to select day cream and night cream!

Day cream:

If you have a sensitive skin, look for fragrance-free and oil-free option.

Look for a day cream with SPF 15 that helps to protect your skin from UV in summer.

You may look for a richer day cream if the weather is dry and it’s a cold winter to protect your face from drying out.

Night cream:

Choose a night cream with the right formular that is suitable with your skin type e.g. night cream for 30 years old up, anti wrinkle formula and anti ageing, night cream for dry skin.

If your skin is sensitive, you should avoid products containing harsh ingredients and select the boosting formular, pure and healing one. Organic ingredients may be the best option for you.

This time I will take you for a little tour in Italy on my work trip! It was an honour to be selected by my beatiful client to do a bridal makeup and hairstyle for her wedding in Ravello, Italy. It was my first international wedding work trip for this year, so I was quite excited!

Ravello is a historic town and commune situated above the Amalfi Coast in the province of Salerno, Campania, Soutern Italy. It’s a breath taking place indeed! I was there for 3 days and 2 nights, so I had a chance for a little tour beside doing my bridal beauty job.

The wedding day started early with a Chinese Tea ceremony. The bride needed to be ready by 10am, so I started working on her bridal airbrush makeup and hair with an hair-up style at 6.45am. The makeup and hair took 2 hours so she had 1 hour to put her costume on and relax before the ceremony.

I had a few hours break during her Chinese Tea ceremony then the bride would need to chage to haristyle to be a hair down style and her bridal makeup theme to get her ready to put her wedding dress on for the actual wedding ceremony. I was on touchup duty since then until the beginning of the couple's wedding reception late afernoon.

Many ladies are big fans of lipstick (like me) and I think it’s easy to shop and pop one two three and more into your shopping bag… from time to time before you realise how many sticks you have stored in your beauty box at home!

Some of the lipstick you bought you hardly wear them because it may not be your favourite colours… don’t let these lipsticks run out of date! Here we go! lets smash them up and mix them up to make a new colours of your DIY lipstick. This may engage you to use them more or you even can give it as a gift to your friends and make your own brand!

Equipment & Ingredients:

Some lipsticks.

Spatular (or you can use a dining knight or even a tea spoon!).

Stainless palette (or you can use a plate).

A small cosmetic container (or an empty lip palette).

How to make:

Just cut the lipstick, smash and mix until you get the colour you want.

Put it in the container.

Put in in a freezer for 30 minutes to set it back to hard.

Take it off from the freezer.

If you would like to make a smoother, flatter surface and look nicer: put cling film on it and press it with your fingers as soon as possible after taking it off from the freezer.

This was one of the most impressive weddings that I attended (as a makeup artist & hairstylist :-) mid of August this year. My beautiful client came to my studio with her mom for her trial bridal makeup & hairstyle about 6 weeks before her wedding. Everything went well as usual and my client called to confirm to book my service for her wedding day, yeah!

The wedding day started early as usual, and I had to get up really early, to make sure that I had a full set of makeup and hair equipment. It would be a long day and my duties for this wedding are: bridal makeup and hairstyle, touching up on location, 2nd hairstyle and 2nd makeup for the bride in the afternoon for her Chinese wedding tea ceremony. It was a long day for the bride as well as most brides would be sleepless as they would be excited for the big day. For their best beautiful freshy look I would like to suggest that all future brides to avoid drinking alcohol and put loads of moisturising cream on their face the night before their wedding, drink a lot of water, minimum smoking if their are smokers or they can use nicothin pad instead of smoking.

Well, I headed to Four Seasons London Hotel with to meet the bride to be for her bridal beauty transition. The first bridal makeup and hairstyle took 2.5 hours. The wedding took place at All Souls Church in Central London where I was on my touchup on location for to refresh the bride look. I had a couple hours break during the ceremony. I met the bride back at her hotel in the afternoon to change the theme of her makeup and doing second hairstyle for her tea ceremony.

Congratuation to the beautiful bride and the handsome groom and thank you to Top 10 UK wedding photographer, Alex Beckett (www.alexbeckett.co.uk) for the beautfiful photos.

It was great to work with a young, talented model like Sofi. She was fun to work with, easy going and off course she is very professional. I name this photo set “Dare Beauty”. Please scroll down to see all of her photos. Makeup, hairstyle and photoshoot by me :-)

It was a nice sunny Sunday in mid of October 2015 that I worked on-site with Miss W for her pre-wedding makeup and hairstyle. We started her makeup and hair in her flat in St. John Wood. I performed an airbrush makep for her HD look and weather proof just in case as you know what the English weather like! The airbrush makeup and hairstyle took about 2 hours and then we headed to the photo shoot location to meet with the photographer.

The pre-weddig photo shoot took place at Hill Garden and Pergola, located in Hamstead Heath. The beautiful future birde chose the location very well as it was very quiet with not many visitors, so her and her partner were able to take photo almost at everywhere they wished to.

I enjoyed working with the couple for my 2 hours touchup on location. I could not stop saying how beautiful the future bride was. You can see some pictures below (from my personal camera). Thank you to the couple for letting me take their photos evenmy photo shoot skill is nothing to compare with the fantastic photos (top 3 pictures) from the photographer on the day.

Thank you to my beautiful client and the photographer for the fantastic photos (top 3 pictures).

Many ladies ask me how to apply their own strip eyelashes quickly and effectively. I finally finish this blog after a bit delay after my busy summer!! Frist of all you will need these tools to apply your false eyelashes a lot easier!

Strip lashes

Eyelash adhesive glue (I suggest using a light colour rather than a dark glue)

Tweezers

Scissors

Adjustable mirror.

Step 1: Apply mascara on both upper and lower of your own real lashes as normal. You may make a bit zigzag movment to help the mascara to stick on your lashes faster and it will give more volume as well.

(Step 2 - Step 5 do it one by one side of your eyes)

Step 2: Take false lashes off of the patlet gently one by one side. Hold it with tweezers at the middle of the strip and measure it with the width of your eye. If it’s wider than you eye then cut a little bit of the inner and outer to match the wide of you eye.

Step 3: Pick up the false lashes at the middle tweezers and apply glue on the edge of the false lashes (do this one side after the other) and wait for about 30 - 45 seconds to make it sure that the glue become stickier.

Step 4: Stick the false eye lashes at the middle of you eye as close as possible to your real lashes. You will need to adjust the mirror well up and down to make sure that you can see your eyelid clearly while you eye is open.

Step 5: Use your fingers to stick the inner and the outer of false lashes. Hold it for a while to make sure it sticks well on your eye.

Repeat Step 2 - 5 again for the other eye. Now you are done! The video of this eyelash application is coming soon!

I wrote how to make your own makeup brush cleanser and how to wash your brushes a while ago and this time it’s about how to dry them properly. When your brushes are washed and clean don’t forget to squeeze your brush bristles gently to get rid of excess water to help them to dry faster. Dry your brushes by laying them on a towel and let them dry by air. Don’t stand the brushes with bristles up as the damp still can damage the brush root. It’s even better if you can hang your brushes up side down somewhere in the open air and sun to let them dry naturally. Do not use a hair drier to help them dry faster as this may damage the bristles.

It’s not often that I have a Saturday evening off. If it is a nice sunny afternoon, I just sit and relax in my little makeup studio.

I look around …hmm… I am running out of brush cleansing spray that keep my makeup brush clean, nice and soft. Ok.. I am going to make some up now! It used to cost me fortune to buy this spray from the big brand names!

I started making up my home made brush cleansing spray a few years ago. It works well, it keeps my brushes clean, smelling nice, hygienic and off course it’s cost effective.

Well.. let’s prepare the ingredients:

250 ml of distilled water or bottled water.

50 ml of isopropyl alcohol (cosmetic grade alcohol).

1/2 table spoon of shampoo.

1/2 table spoon of Fairy Liquid.

1 table spoon of leave in hair conditioner.

Tools:

A jug.

A stick to stir (e.g. a chopstick or your makeup brush handrail)

A spray bottle.

How to make:

Pour all the ingredients in a jug and mix it all up.

Stir well with a stick.

Finally, pour it into a spray bottle.

You have got a brush cleanser!

How to use: (do the following on each brush)

Spray the brush cleanser on the bristles of your makeup brush. Just makeup it damp enough.

Rub your brush gently on one of your hand palms.

Run it under a tap with slightly warm water. Don’t let the water touch the root of your brush as it can damage the glue that holds the bristles.

When you are sure that the brush is clean, squeeze your brush bristles gently to get rid of excess water to help it to dry faster.

Dry your brush by laying it on a towel and let it dry by air. Don’t stand the brush up as the damp still can damage the brush root.

Well, I hope you enjoy this little beauty laboratory work and now your brushes are nice and clean for ever more :-) See you soon on my next blog.

I enjoy being filmed & interviewed from Sky1 “What’s up” program about make up for men. I was excited, got up early making my self ready and off course I put my makeup as the interveiw subject is about men wearing makeup. The team of 7 people arrived about 11am with loads of TV technical stuff that makes my treatment room look really small immediately! They were so friendly and professionl people. I enjoyed being being interviewed and I loved cameras :-) but I am not sure cameras love me as I am not a photogenic person. It gotta be on air on Saturday the 21st Feb 2015 at 12pm.

"Enjoyed working with the beautiful bride Keara at Syon House with my colleague Nancy”

We arrived at the bride’s apartment slightly before 7am which is not far from her wedding venue Syon House to have extra time for setting up our stuff before starting our work. Our beautiful bride is Miss K and her mothe fom whom will do the makup and hair. Nancy strated doing hair on the bride’s mother and I did airbrush make for the bride and then we swap. Everything went well as our target time was 2 hours in total. The clients were happy and we were happy as well to be part of their happy day.

I had an early makeup trip to Hemel Hampstead where our bride lives. The bride, bridesmaids and her mother got ready in her house. My duty of the day was doing airbrush bridal makeup & bridal hairstyle, a hairstyle for one of her bridesmaid and touching on location for the bride. Everything went well being on schedule before we headed to the posh wedding venue the "Pinewood Studios". The wedding was set in a big Victorian house with a large Victorian garden. You can see how happy the bride and her family were.

It was an honour to join "Tesco Does Strictly Come Dancing 2014" as the one and only one makeup artist for the dancers on 31st Jan 2014. Hmm… there were many beautiful and handsome dancers for me to makeup. A speedy hand is a must! I had about 10 minute only per a dancer. I told them it won’t be a high details makeup but you willl look stunting on the stage and being photogenic for sure :-)